Primavera Sound 2019

At the turn from May to June we will be heading Southwards for the 2019 edition of Primavera Sound, a music festival that has become a must-visit for both its headliners and exciting acts from the unruly underground. As fervent aficionados of making lists, we made a Subba selection of the performances we are most excited about.

Text by Valerie Steenhaut

Clara!

Fuego is what best describes the sound of the Galicia-born and Brussels resident Clara!, as well as that of her latest song called ‘Acero’. Dedicated to redressing the stereotypes of the male-dominated reggaeton scene, we first discovered her through her Reggaetoneras mixtapes, in which she mixes female MCs and rhythms only. Our prediction: the ideal soundtrack to dance the night away at Forum.

Ian Isiah

Sonically forward, genderless, avant-garde and a mixture of contrasts, Ian Isiah is the child of our post-everything world. After his 2013 debut mixtape The Love Champion, Isiah has worked with artists like Le1f, Mykki Blanco, Blood Orange and Sinjin Hawke, before releasing Shugga Sextape Vol. 1, a celebration of love and living out your wildest dreams. On Primavera we expect an act both sacred and desanctifying, something fun but inherently spiritual, like the artist himself.

JASSS

More Spanish blood will be gracing the stage at the festival. Based in Berlin, JASSS (aka S. Jiménez Álvarez) is a multi genre DJ, sound artist and producer playing everything from indecipherable ambient to the most libertine jazz, industrial techno, Persian folklore, and much more – An interesting mixture spurring from a personal pursuit to try and understand the relationship we as humans have with music. After the intriguing set she played at Red Light Radio in Amsterdam we can’t wait to hear what she has in store next.

Jpegmafia

We remember the first time we heard Jpegmafia’s song ‘Baby I’m Bleeding’: we immediately wanted to punch the bad guys in the face and sent the song to ten-plus Facebook friends. His latest album, Veteran, is already an essential record for fans of adventurous hip hop: both furious and more peaceful high quality raps are accompanied by unpredictable and wild production. Think early OWGKTA, Dalek, Death Grips.

Object Blue

Tokyo-born, Beijing-raised and London-based artist who stands out with refreshing techno productions. By infusing no-nonsense techno with experimental club rhythms and otherworldly soundscapes, and occasionally sampling Cardi B or Aaliyah, object blue knows how to engage an audience. She calls herself a technofeminist, both because of her love for techno and feminism, but also because she’s convinced that it stands for a vision of the world in which technology is a tool for women’s liberation. References to Joan of Arc or the Kung Fu fighting women of the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and samples from the aforementioned female vocalists help object blue to empower the women in front of her booth.